The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-03-11
BARETTI'S BRACELET.
Why and How a Princess Gave It
to Him.

to Him.
He was the handsomest man that I
have ever seen upon the boards, and
that despite the fact that l have been
stage-manager in leading Italian the
alters for the last thirty years; so when,
after brilliant season of six weeks in
st. Petersburg, our energetic director
decided to mount Torelli's great trag-
edy of ''The Martyrs" and needed an
actor of remarkable personal beauty to
take the part of Claudius, said to him
at once: "Cola Baretti is the very
man." There was no question at any
time of our leading tragedian, Varese,
for the character, for he was short and
thick-set, and was fifty years old at the
very least, besides which he preferred
the part of Nero, which he had always
played in Italy. Our director Tele-
graphed for Baretti that very night,
and the piece was brought out three
weeks later Of course every body
knows about Torelli's Martyrs" as it
is one of the greatest poetic dramas of
the nineteenth century. | need, there
fore, only mention that it turns on the
fate of Claudius, brilliant young prof
ligate noble, who loves Christian
patrican maiden, and is induced by
his love to embrace her faith and to
share in her doom, both being con-
demned to the lions by Nero. We had
cage full of real lions in the last
scene, that of the amphitheater, and by
dint of never feeding them till Just
after the performance, we got them to
roar every evening in a most realistic
and bloodthirsty fashion. Then we had
q new scene for that act representing
the interior of the Colosseum, as re-
stored, after the best authorities, and
it was so finely done that it created
genuine sensation.
But the great success of the play was
Baretti as Claudius. As Ihave said be-
fore, he was wonderfully handsome,
in q superb and symmetrical and an
tiquo Roman fashion, that was just
suited to the character. And when, on
the first night, Claudius appeared at
the top of flight of steps at one side
of the stage, in his white, gold-bor-
dered tunic and snowy mantle, with
fan of white ostrich plumcs in his hand,
and leaning upon the shoulder of one
of his boon companions, murmur of
admiration ran through the house.
The old Countess Ledichoff was
heard to ask: GLOW long was it since
the statues in the Vatican had come to
life and taken to acting?n And the
sculptor Krazino1f (who died the other
day, aged eighty-two) came up to him
in the grecn-room, after the first act,
and said, with long look at his figure
and his features: "Ah, my boy, if l
were but ten years younger, [ would
make of your Claudius u masterpiece
in marble that would immortalize us
both!' Nor was his acting less sue
cess than his appearance, The fine
play of his features, the grace of his
gestures, the enforced fervor and
pathos of the later scenes, all won
warm praise from audience and critics
alike, and, much to Yarese's disgust
and Indignation, Cola Baretti was the
success of our season.
Looking as he did and acting as he
did, he came in for good deal of social
attention and the more so as he was a
winning, genial, gentlemanly fellow
OIL the stage, and n great favorite with
every body who made his acquaintance
But he kept out of the way as much as
possible, refused most of the invita-
tons that were extended to him, and
burned up the little perfumed notes
that he daily received without so much
as reading them. The truth is that he
was engaged to be married to young
American girl, Alice Mayburn by
name, who was studying singing in
Milan under Lamperti, and so he used
to devote his leisure moments to study
ing Shakespeare and writing her long
letters He showed me her photo
graph once, but can not say l thought
much of it--a little thin face with a
pair of immense eyes, and that was all.
A little American mocking- bird, that
scarcely thought was fitted to mate
with our king-falcon, told Baretti so
very frankly one day, but he would not
listen to me.
Friend Marconi," he said, II love
her and she loves me, and when once
her debut is made and her career, like
mine, assured, l shall invite you to the
wedding. So not a word, l beg of you,
in disparagement of my future wife !"
That was one of the defects of Cola's
character. He never would listen to
reason ON any point where his affec-
tions were concerned. 1t was the
same thing about his friendship for
that unlucky Lieutenant Ivan Nikal-
aieff, who was afterwards hanged for
completely in Nihilist conspiracy. l
always said to him: Cola, my boy,
you should make friends where they
can do you some good, not amongst
people that can only be an injury to
you" But nothing would induce him
to give up his friend till Nikalaieff was
actually arrested. And the night fol-
lowingth execution, Cola positively
refused to act, and we had to make an
apology for him on the ground of sud-
den indisposition, though by so doing
we brought suspicion upon us ALL l
do not think we were ever free, after
that, from the surveillance of the police,
as long as we remained in Russia
However, 1.-The Martyrs" continued
to draw tremendous houses, some peo-
pie coming to see it as often as five or
six times And there was one person |
verify believe never missed single
representation, Night after night one